Sen. Mitt Romney, R-Utah, called President Trump's refusal to concede the 2020 election "really sad" and "embarrassing" on Sunday.
"I understand the president is casting about, trying to find some way to have a different result than the one that was delivered by the American people," Romney told CNN's "State of the Union." "It’s really sad in a lot of respects and embarrassing because the president could, right now, be writing the last chapter of this administration with a victory lap with regards to the vaccine."
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"He could be going out championing this extraordinary success, and instead he's leaving Washington with conspiracy theories and things so nutty and loopy that people are shaking their head wondering what in the world has gotten into this man? I think that’s unfortunate because he has more accomplishments than this last chapter suggests he is going to be known for," Romney continued.
The president has refused to concede to President-elect Joe Biden and continues to claim without evidence that there was massive voter fraud in many of the key battleground states where Biden beat Trump, giving the former vice president a large 306-232 Electoral College victory over the GOP incumbent. Biden also beat the president by more than 7 million votes in the national popular count.
However, Romney said he would not leave the Republican Party, as Rep. Paul Mitchell, R-Mich., recently announced he would.
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"The party has taken a different course than, obviously, the one that I knew as a younger person," Romney said. "We were happy to play a leadership role on the world stage because we felt it made us safer and more prosperous, and we believed character was essential in the leaders we chose. We strayed from that. I don’t see us returning to that for a long time."
"I represent a very small slice of the Republican Party today," he added. "I think I’m more effective in the Republican Party, continuing to battle for the things I believe in, and, I think, ultimately the Republican Party will return to the roots that have been formed over the century. So we will get back at some point, and hopefully people will recognize we need to take a different course than the one we are on right now."
Sen. Mitt Romney, R-Utah, asks a question to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo during a Senate Foreign Relations committee hearing on the State Department's 2021 budget on Capitol Hill Thursday, July 30, 2020, in Washington. (Greg Nash/Pool via AP)
Trump called Romney a "RINO" in November after the senator called Trump’s efforts to reverse Biden's victory in this month’s election an "undemocratic action."
Trump called in for a radio interview on 77 WABC on Sunday morning, continuing to claim that this was "the most corrupt election this country has ever had by far."
"We've already found the answers. Now we have to get some support from some politicians," Trump said. "Other than that we have it made. I think we've come a long way in a very short time."
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Fox News' Paul Steinhauser and Tyler Olson contributed to this report.
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